Submitted by , posted on 14 March 2005



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Here are, finally, some screens from my engine. The engine is still coming along nicely, for a hobby project. The first three rows show off the mods that I have put together for the engine. Yes, they are actually mods; they are zip files in the MODS folder in the engines data path. The engine loads the logic DLL from the mod (thanks to Joachim Bauch for his wonderful DLL loader code, so that I can load DLL's from memory), then searched for all data in the mod archive first, then the default data path after. It also loads a config file for the mod to know what level to start at. The screens of the mods have three pictures each, first showing normal rendering, then a glare post process filter, then an ASCII text post process filter. The engine can actually support many different post process filters, as I have it implemented in a modular way, I can derive my post process interface class, and add it to my screen list. As for the mods themselves, here is some info:
  • First, this shows off a simple shapes game I put together. Pickup the shapes and shoot them in their corresponding homes.
  • Second, this shows off a maze game I put together. Follow the maze to the end, and if you fall through a hole, you reappear back at the beginning.
  • Third, this shows of a tile game I recreated. Click tiles to clear out sections that have multiple touching tiles. More tiles cleared at once means more points.
  • The last four pictures are to show off some higher quality pictures, through Doom3 data. I have a Doom3 level format plug-in for the engine, so that I can load Doom3 levels, including plug-ins for LWO, ASE, and MD5 models, so that things can be loaded correctly in the level. Overall, performance is decent, though I only have a Raedon9600, so it really lags at higher resolutions. Also, the fours pics are glare, normal rendering, ASCII, and depth of field, though you can't see the depth of field as well in this smaller screen shot.

    As for the engine, it uses deferred lighting, with support for diffuse and specular bump mapping. I also support an array of post processing filters, which is great since I also already have position information for each pixel on the screen (thanks to deferred lighting), so that I can support things like Depth of Field. Currently, I have a glare, depth of field, gamma correction, sepia/grayscale toner, and ASCII conversion filters. I also support dynamic shadow mapping, though I am working on a quick have for static light mapping in real time. Basically, I want to render the shadow maps for static lights when I load the level, without rendering dynamic objects. Then I'll have static shadow maps that I can use through out the level, they just won't include dynamic objects in the shadows, but I won't have to render the shadow information in real time anymore, which will speed things up considerably. Most of the engine is my own doing, though I do use zlib for ZIP archive support, DevIL for image decoding, Audiere for audio file decoding, and Newton for physics.

    Lastly, I finally have a web site again, so I have the engine and mods available for download. http://www.hourglassdesign.net



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